The purpose of this study is to study motor learning and recovery of patients with brain damage caused by traumatic brain injury or stroke with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). It is hypothesized that anodal tDCS on the lesion side and/or cathodal tDCS on the healthy side of motor cortex could improve the recovery of motor function such as learning.

Primary outcome measure is the average reaction time of 360 trials from each block -- the task is composed of 8 blocks. After intervention, 3 blocks will be re-tested for 3 times to evaluate the consolidating effect of tDCS on motor learning.

We aim to apply transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to study the recovery process of motor learning on the patients with brain damage caused by traumatic brain injury or stroke. Both anodal and cathodal tDCS will be used to test whether the increase of motor cortical activity by anodal tDCS over lesional side or the decrease of brain activity by cathodal tDCS on healthy side will improve the learning skill (SRTT: serial reaction time task). The result could help to understand the mechanism of motor and cognitive recovery after brain damage, and further rationalize the application of non-invasive brain stimulation such as tDCS for patient rehabilitation.

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years to 65 Years (Adult)

Genders Eligible for Study:

Both

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

No

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

TBI or stroke patients

with partially preserved fine motor function

Exclusion Criteria:

with metal clips in head or device (e.g. pacemaker)

with active CNS drugs

Contacts and Locations

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Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01127789